


phoenix rekindled

by Svynakee



Category: Thunderbolt Fantasy 東離劍遊紀 (TV)
Genre: Fix It Fic, Gen, Oneshot, chinese names lol, save my best mans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 15:14:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17428379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Svynakee/pseuds/Svynakee
Summary: Sha Wu Sheng had long believed that the path he walked was one of inevitability; from his birth to each new moment, the eerie cries of cruel birds would echo as he painted his blades red. He'd long since discarded uncertainty.Until now.[fix-it fic where shang bu huan uses his inspiring speech powers to clean up lin xue ya's messes]





	phoenix rekindled

**Author's Note:**

> s a v e h i m

He painted the walls with blood, carpeted the floor with corpses. The air rang with the cries of the dying; the fortunate barely had time to gasp before he took their lives, while others screamed as they were hacked apart, left where they fell to bleed out or be trampled by their comrades. Wu Sheng did not decide which ones received the kinder fate. Their deaths, and the manner of dying, had already been decided.

The Onyx Demons kept coming, kept dying, until they didn’t. Wu Sheng had expected more from the dreaded cult. Mie Tian Hai’s like was a rarity in this world. Such strength… Wu Sheng wondered. He laughed quietly to himself. What use was there in wondering? His path was one of inevitability. There was nothing to do but proceed.

Yet he stopped before taking another step. He didn’t bother turning. His destination had not changed, so he’d only spare a moment to satisfy this small curiosity before continuing on. ‘You escaped. No thanks to Enigmatic Gale, I assume.’

‘Oho, caught, I suppose.’ Shang Bu Huan stepped out into the open. Although, he remained close enough to the stone pillar he’d hidden behind that he could be shielded from Wu Sheng’s attack at a moment’s notice. ‘Yeah, the cage they put me in wasn’t as sturdy as it should’ve been. Stroke of luck, I guess.’

Wu Sheng didn’t believe him, and he suspected that Shang Bu Huan didn’t expect him to. In truth, the man had been something of a mystery to him. He had skill. He had secrets. And from what little Wu Sheng had learned of his past, he was running from something. No idle wandering could bring one to cross the Wasteland of Spirits.

There was no use trying to avoid one’s past – it was the spring from which the river of their life flowed, shaping each twisting loop until the bitter end. Wu Sheng’s was tainted with the tang of blood. So it would remain. Perhaps Shang Bu Huan would learn that truth one day, amidst a crow’s laughter and the musky caress of pipe smoke.

‘No man would call himself lucky to cross my path. I go to claim what’s mine: the head of Lin Xue Ya. Don’t get in my way.’

Shang Bu Huan sighed. ‘Is that really the best idea?’

His tone was casual. He cradled his forehead with one hand, as if he had a headache. His eyes were half-closed under a furrowed brow. Wu Sheng considered him. Those were all ruses; the sharpness of his gaze beneath his eyelashes, the readiness within his stance, the way his other hand rested on his hip, so close to his sword. Wu Sheng had to smile. Only a fool would try to stop the Screaming Phoenix Killer. Only a master would be able to guard against him for so long.

‘Best and worst doesn’t factor into it. I will kill him. He will die by my blade. That is his fate, and mine.’

‘Now, I don’t know either of you very well, and I don’t know how you got tangled up with him, but from the way things have played out so far, don’t you think he might be waiting for you?’

‘I would assume so,’ Wu Sheng said dryly, ‘seeing as I’ve reminded him repeatedly of my intentions.’

If the man noticed his jibe, he ignored it. ‘That’s exactly what I mean. He knows you’ll be coming for him. So, it makes sense to assume that he’ll have some scheme in place to use that to his advantage. You’re walking right into it.’

It wasn’t that Wu Sheng hadn’t considered the possibility, it was that he’d accepted it long ago. After so long without a trace, he finally came upon not only the directions to where the thief was, but an item that would let him corner the man? The fact that it’d been a flute had all but confirmed his suspicions.

 _The flute’s melody will give me strength._ He laughed as he remembered the words of the past, spoken by someone foolish enough to take a crow’s cawing for birdsong.

Shang Bu Huan flinched. ‘Oi, what’s so funny about that? Gui Niao or Gale or whatever isn’t someone sane people mess around with.’

‘The fact that you’d use “sane person” to refer to someone like myself is amusing enough.’

‘If you weren’t sane, there’d be no point to reasoning with you, right?’

‘That sounds more like an argument against yourself.’ Wu Sheng considered the man. The kind who disliked bloodshed, but to the point that they’d take to the battlefield themselves hoping to spare others. In a way, someone who wielded the sword for such a reason could be called insane as well. ‘You caution me to walk away, yet don’t make your own escape. Why should I listen to the advice of someone who won’t follow it themselves?’

Shang Bu Huan scratched his head. ‘Ah, yeah, that’s a good point. To be honest, I’m still not sure how I got caught up in all this. But now that I know Gui Niao’s a crook, it’s not like I can leave Miss Dan Fei in this mess by herself. Might as well give my best shot getting that sword back before calling it a day.’

‘A hero by circumstance? How noble.’

‘Just a guy trying to help out.’

‘And yet you waste time here trying to convince me. Do I really inspire as much selflessness as that maiden?’

Shang Bu Huan chuckled. ‘Come on, it’s not like I’m sticking my neck out for you or anything. Chatting like this cost me nothing. And, it’s not like my words will have any meaning if you just ignore them.’

‘Yet you persist in idle chatter, knowing that I could take your head whether you stick your neck out or not.’ If he was honest, Wu Sheng wasn’t as certain as his words would imply. He narrowed his eyes. The man before had, from the beginning, been a riddle. Skilled with a sword, alone, following that accursed thief without a clue… _What does he see in you? Why did he choose you?_

The man shrugged. ‘Guilty as charged. Well, if you’re really set on this, we’ll just go our separate ways. I might as well make the best out of the sudden drop in the Onyx Demons’ numbers.’

‘Wait.’ Wu Sheng watched the man pause, noted the wary lines of his shoulders and hands. A traveller from a distant land. One who, before they met, had heard of neither the Screaming Phoenix Killer nor Sha Wu Sheng, the monster that had killed the moment he was birthed. This man who’d chosen to sit across from him in moonlight and drink wine as they swapped idle words. ‘I would have you know what Enigmatic Gale stole from me.’

‘Whoa, I’m already trying to get one magic sword back, my hands are pretty full right now.’

Wu Sheng raised a brow at him. ‘I am not asking for assistance. And it is not something in your power to retrieve, in any case. After I kill Enigmatic Gale, only I will know of his crime. One as infamous as the Screaming Phoenix Killer does not need a reason to kill. So it will fall to you to bear the burden of this knowledge: this truth. The reason why Lin Xue Ya must die by my blade.’

When Shang Bu Huan took a deep breath, Wu Sheng thought he’d refuse. Instead, the man turned to face him and jerked his head as if to say, ‘get on with it, then’.

‘The day I was born, it was to a cacophony of eerie bird calls. My mother died. The midwife and her assistant came to blows and perished as well. My father thus named me Sha Wu Sheng, casting me out after failing to kill me. He left me outside my master’s school. The man took me in and taught me the sword yet became disgusted when I used those skills to fight and kill. From my birth it was clear that my path would be stained in blood. But Lin Xue Ya hired me to be his bodyguard. For three years I remained by his side, not ending a single life. He even suggested I forsake my ways as an assassin and become… respectable. Yet it was all a ruse. He manipulated me so that I would be his weapon against my own master and a tournament of swords here in Dong Li. The name of Screaming Phoenix Killer was meant to signal my new beginning. He stole that from me – my chance of ever turning away from this path. Thus, my fate was sealed. As was his own.’

A child named for a curse would grow to become a demon. But a demon given a taste of living as a man, only to have it turn to bile in his throat… the thing that Xue Ya stole could not be kept as a trophy by the thief, yet Wu Sheng could feel that emptiness gnawing unrelenting at his flesh.

‘You want me to remember all that?’

Shang Bu Huan’s voice brought Wu Sheng back to the present. ‘I do not need you to spread the tale or give it any deep thought. Your knowing of it is enough.’

‘Still seems a hassle, though. And a shitty thing to foist onto someone that’s a stranger, when all’s said and done,’ Shang Bu Huan complained.

Wu Sheng’s hands twitched towards his blades. Of course a man involved with Gale would’ve been unreliable. ‘If you want to be relieved of that burden, say the word and I’ll take it from you, along with the rest of your head.’

‘You’re the one who said you didn’t want my assistance. If this is all because Lin Xue Ya stole from you, just steal it back and call it even. No need to involve me.’

Wu Sheng snarled, ‘Weren’t you listening? The thing he stole from me-’

‘-isn’t something that can be locked in a safe or hidden in a hideout,’ Shang Bu Huan interrupted, ‘so why don’t you just turn it back on him? Bastard’s probably banking on you trying to get his head. Putting one over him sounds like a better revenge.’

Wu Sheng blinked. That made sense… but… he shook his head as if that could clear his suddenly muddy thoughts. Taking a step back he growled, ‘Is this a trick? Did Xue Ya tell you to say this?’

‘That’s not the way to go about this,’ Shang Bu Huan said. ‘I know the kind of guy Lin Xue Ya is. Can’t get enough to themselves, always trying to dupe others into doing the heavy lifting while they walk out with the goods. Best way to deal with them is to give them the cold shoulder.’

‘You can’t have met his like before.’ He could still recall the way his vision wavered, unable to tell if it was due to the thickening smoke or the exhaustion that spread through his limbs. Blood loss sapped his strength but that was nothing compared to the cold, sickening betrayal that twisted inside him. _I thought… I wanted… you gave me…_ Wu Sheng spat, ‘There’s _no one_ like him.’

‘He’s a piece of work, sure, but you see his kind scurrying around now and then.’ Shang Bu Huan’s voice softened. ‘Hey now, don’t go giving him so much credit. That’s the first step to getting fooled by him.’

 _Don’t underestimate him_ , Wu Sheng wanted to say. _He’ll use it. He’ll use you._

‘He suggested you turn your life around, but the choice to do it was yours, right? He took one chance from you. Go and grab yourself another one, then. He can’t steal your ability to change yourself. That-’ Shang Bu Huan grinned and tapped his chest- ‘comes from you. You just have to use it.’

Wu Sheng tried to parse through his words, looking for a hint of deception, the crack that would reveal it for the falsehood it was. _No, it’s gone, my fate is unquestionable._ That man couldn’t understand. He wasn’t there. He hadn’t breathed in the blood and smoke, the last breath of an old man who looked at his former pupil and cursed him, cursed him as his father had-

 _‘I don’t give a damn about fate.’_ The words Shang Bu Huan had said to him, under the silvery moonlight with the scent of evening flowers thick in the air.

From the day he was born, his path had been immutable. He’d been condemned. What could it be, except fate? To have such a name? Such a past?

 _‘I choose when to draw my blade and when to strike.’_ He’d derided the man’s ideals as second-rate. Yet even now, it was a riddle unanswered. Would he really have been the one to walk away that night?

_I don’t know…_

_I don’t have an answer._

Wu Sheng felt something bump into his foot. It was the severed hand of an Onyx Demon. How did it move? He looked around, saw the footsteps leading backward over bloodstained stone. They were his own.

‘Uh, Screaming Phoenix Killer? You going somewhere?’ Shang Bu Huan’s stance was no longer wary. It was open – one arm outstretched, one foot forward, leaning towards him. ‘Floor’s kind of slippery right now. I’d rather you not fall and crack your head open.’

_Who are you?_

Wu Sheng blinked. His vision was hazy. Warmth ran down his cheeks. Like blood, but he wasn’t hurt. Was he?

_Who am I?_

To be carried along by a river flowing from a single point, and find oneself suddenly adrift on a still lake, motionless. To have to choose a direction. Or even go ashore.

Wu Sheng laughed. The thrill of it! The way his heart beat now, erratic like the fluttering wings of a trapped bird, blood crying out. In fear! To be free to fear, to hope.

To change.

He reached down and took the flute. A master for a master. A flute for a flute. He threw it at Shang Bu Huan, who caught it expertly despite his confused expression.

‘My parting gift for Lin Xue Ya!’ Wu Sheng told him. ‘Tell him I’m no thief: the Soul Flute is his, along with his cursed head. The name he gave to me freely, so I’ll keep it, but it’s mine to do with as I please. If he thinks to steal from me again, I’ll slit his throat.’

Shang Bu Huan shrugged. ‘That’s still a lot, but it’s a good deal more cheerful than what you wanted me to remember before. Consider it done. Oh, since you’ll be needing a new way out of this place, here.’

Wu Sheng caught the curved bone crescent.

‘Just throw it high into the air to grab a demon bird. Not my favourite way to travel, but it’ll save you the trouble of walking back.’

One of the whistles they used, then. A phoenix on demonic wings. Strangely fitting. Wu Sheng bowed. ‘My thanks.’

Shang Bu Huan scratched his head in embarrassment. ‘Yeah. Uh, good luck? I’m just gonna… go.. got stuff to do, you know.’

‘I imagine so.’ Wu Sheng watched the man turn back and forth until he chose a hallway seemingly at random to proceed down. If Wu Sheng had to guess, Xue Ya would’ve been near the top of the tower, where Mie Tian Hai kept his most valuable possessions in absolute safety. But Shang Bu Huan seemed like the kind of man who wandered around and somehow ended up where he meant to be, so Wu Sheng watched him in silence. Not giving a damn about fate… but it was a different matter entirely if fate had taken an interest in him. The man was a riddle. And so he would remain, at least to Wu Sheng.

When he was certain the other man had left, Wu Sheng wiped the tears off his face, blinking the rest away. Clouded vision could lead a man astray. He took one last look at the door which would lead him to Lin Xue Ya, the crow whose cackling had followed him for the better part of a year.  

And then, the Screaming Phoenix Killer walked away.

**Author's Note:**

> Sha Wu Sheng says that no one with his name could become respectable, but if he'd just drop his surname(?) he'd be called No/Without Life which is pretty sad but not evil-sounding, while going by A-Sheng just makes him sound normal. Sheng-gege, why did you have to leave us? The movie made him so sympathetic too!!!
> 
> I firmly believe that if given the chance, Shang Bu Huan could've turned him around like he did with the Princess of Cruelty.


End file.
